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Friday, September 9, 2016

Christian LeBlanc, my partner on the Madman Comin' Atcha 3D trading cards, just worked his stereoscopic magic on one of the fake Stranger Things trading cards I designed! Get your 3D specs out and dig them!

Sunday, August 28, 2016

With a sick girlfriend, it was the perfect time to finally binge watch Stranger Things, like the majority of the US population who has already beat me to the punch on it. I fell quickly in love with the Duffer Brothers' world (and with Shaun Levy, one of my favorite and most underrated directors behind the helm on about half the episodes? Consider me in)--it was an '80s pastiche without becoming kitschy, and engaged the '80s kid that I am, as well as the 21st century adult uncontrollably catching the next episode.I would LOVE to see Stranger Things cards and, rolling with the '80s love, used the Topps' E.T. set as my point of departure. I have two different back treatments: the old school one uses the lightbulb image that is prevalent throughout the series, while the second sticks with a more modern and sleek design.

For the fronts, I had to go with the black and red color scheme. While the design with the logo is more modern, I feel like it embraces the show's best iconography.

Tuesday, August 23, 2016

When I was in high school, I used to take long walks into town, where I'd hit up the library and comic book shop. One Saturday, I checked out a VHS of Nosferatu and watched it--for the first time--in a study room in the Longwood College library, with huge headphones on.

It's one of those experiences that opened up a new world to me.

I first thought of doing a small pack of Nosferatu trading cards for this site, but then realized "Why not launch it as a campaign?" I sat down the other night and got to work and, by yesterday evening, launched the Nosferatu 13 Trading Cards of Terror campaign with a goal of just $500.

This is going to be a short, fun campaign with a very limited print run. My initial thoughts are 250, but I may even cut it down to 100.

The card fronts were designed to showcase the stills, while the backs will each have a unique design (hey, I needed a challenge somewhere!).

Each card back will also have a relevant piece of info about the film itself, some taken from my studies in writing the documentary Monsters Among Us, while others will be newly researched.

My next post is gonna have something also very, very cool. It will only take a few more days to cook up!

Saturday, August 13, 2016

I've been a fan of Kevin Smith since I first popped a rented VHS of Clerks in my Dad's VCR in the early '90s. Jay and Silent Bob quickly became walking narrative threads that knit the first comics-related cinematic universe together with the Jersey trilogy.

And I love trading cards, so much that I make them for fun, and still collect whatever boxes or packs of the old ones that I can. I started this blog to keep designing for when I don't have cards in the works. No better way to start than with the duo (played by Smith and Jason Mewes), the pot-smokin' Laurel and Hardy.

First up is Mallrats, the movie my sis and I used to watch every single time I came home from college. Every. Single. Time. And there was an ever-present bag of chocolate covered pretzels.

It was a fuck ton of pretzels.

Riffing off the beloved 1989 Batman, I did a straight homage to that amazing card set, for both front and back.
The back has a scan of the old school cardstock (which is, actually, expensive as hell if you want to print on it), with each layer made slightly more transparent. I did a similar effect on both the Madman Comin' Atcha and GWAR cards I designed a couple years back.

When it came out, Chasing Amy was a huge vindication for us comics fans; thanks to Smith (the first to actively allude to and quote the Holy Trilogy in his movies), geek culture was becoming cool kid culture. It didn't hurt that my old friend Mike Allred not only did the Bluntman and Chronic art, but also had the first speaking line in the film, or that the whole thing was about cartoonists--
Anywhoo, since Kevin went for more of a dramatic approach with Amy, I gave the design a slightly more adult look in the back treatment, though the copy's still potty mouthed.

It is, after all, from Jay's point of view.

And I've been chomping at the bit to design '90s style Marvel cards of Bluntman and Chronic.

Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back needs to not only have green to match Bluntman's logo, but ever-so much of a Star Wars card riff. The oval frames were added to give it an early '80s feel.

In placing Cock Knocker's image, I had to be careful to not crop off the tip.

One of the best part of the Incredible Change-Bots cards was getting to make bad puns in card titles. Couldn't resist this one...

BONUS!

And, finally, there's Yoga Hosers, which may not have Jay and Silent Bob, but it has Nazi bratwurst, which is never a bad thing, right?

I pulled the pink from the movie posters and, in wanting an icon to place in the corner, went straight for that Bratzi bastard's head. The background color was made mustard orange for obvious reasons...

All intellectual properties are done with no claim to license or ownership by The Drawn Word, LLC unless otherwise stated. In short, I'm doing these as a fan who gets off on old school trading cards, and no relationships with the IP owners is implied.